Dr. Sam Amadi, the keynote speaker at First Daily’s 5th anniversary, warned that Nigeria’s survival hinges on credible and competitive elections.
He said Nigerians spend heavily on polls but often face post-election trauma and deep national divisions, while elite concerns vanish once votes are counted.
Dr. Amadi stressed that elections may not guarantee economic growth or social development, but they remain the only reliable path for peaceful power transitions in a plural society. “No country that has held a free and fair election has collapsed into conflict because of it,” he noted.
He traced Nigeria’s historic crises, including the civil war, to disputed elections. Today, he said, the nation faces extreme fragility, low quality of life, and the presence of terror groups, yet citizens largely fail to recognize the dangers.
Criticizing the nation’s mindset, Dr. Amadi said Nigerians work hard for personal gain but outsource collective survival to luck. “The heart of elections is public interest,” he said. “Caring about fair elections is caring about the common good. That is missing in Nigeria.”
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He warned that if elections continue like those in 2023, citizens may prepare for conflict instead of campaigns in two or three cycles. Fatalism, he said, prevents people from learning from past outcomes and asserting civic rights.
Highlighting institutional reform, Dr. Amadi identified INEC as the first zone of activism. Describing it as a “deep state” with 37 Resident Electoral Commissioners influenced by political interests, he said the commission fails as a true regulator. Political parties often lack access to their rules, and decisions remain opaque. Citizens must study, question, and hold INEC accountable to ensure transparent, rule-based elections.
Dr. Amadi concluded with a warning: if Nigerians stop believing in electoral victory and accept manipulated outcomes, they will turn to violence and the country may not survive.